Rembrandt

ENG 101-AN-DVM

Professor: Richard Scheiwe

Rembrandt’s “Self Portrait’ capture my eyes because it gives me a startling feeling at first glance. He placed his face, as a focal point of most of his paintings and the rest of the painting are places in shadows blending with the background. Looking at many photographs and painting, some artists makes you wonder more than others. Rembrandt stood out to me because he uses himself as a model as well to test new techniques and style of painting. Most artists could not create due to chosen subjects.

Most artists that usually paint them selves are very well dressed, happy, sitting looking at ease. However, Rembrandt’s look inexpressibly sad, timeworn, and defeated. This picture is drowned in shadows and overlapping but his face. His face is illuminated as if it is observing or attracting all the light. His face softened; his unruly hair tinged with gray. His eyes are open and bright as they were following you with every moment. They are capturing and pining even with the mere glance. While staring at the painting it felt as if I was distrusting him as he was painting.

His coat looks very dull and non-descriptive, comparing to his other self-portraits he painted himself in finery. However, in this painting he looks as if his wearing an old coat and his hat is old. The color and quality of his clothing adds to the somber mood of the painting. His hands are not visible. In fact, besides his face no other skin is showing. Perhaps his hands would have taken away some of the light from his face, and his intention may have to draw the audience’s attention immediately to his face. It is as though he meant to emphasize the importance of his facial expression and the lines in his face and de-emphasize the importance of everything else. It looks like he just turned around to see who is entering the room and he preferred not to have anyone interrupted him from his deep thoughts. The only other form that captures any light is the curved from in the lower part of the painting. It is possible that the shape is his palette.

Rembrandt has made a self- portrait of every year of his life from 1606 to 1669. He was given credit to